Brew Bike is American cold brew coffee retailer established in 2015 by then-college freshman, Lucas Philips. Beginning sales on a bike-and-coffee stand at Northwestern University, his small business quickly expanded to campus’ across the United States; following the lockdown restrictions in 2020, the business also evolved to become an online retailer, selling DIY coffee kits. As the brand’s online presence grew, Koto Studio completed an exciting redesign of the company which I am interested in studying as Brew Bike is aimed towards a similar target audience to my mobile banking app, Treaz: university students and young people between the ages of 19 and 25.

One design technique I think the company uses effectively to appeal to their target audience is typeface. A coupe of different typefaces were adopted by Brewbike when the company was rebranded, which I think successfully and appropriately appeal to their young adult audience. The company’s word mark and logo uses a bold, lowercase, sans-serif typeface. Sans-serif typefaces are stripped of traditional, decorative embellishments like tails and strokes that feature on dated typefaces like Times New Roman. The company’s use of a simple, direct sans-serif typeface for their word mark creates a modern, fresh feel to the brand’s face which successfully appeals to and reflects their young and trendy customer base of college students. The sans-serif typeface paired with a heavy, bold font weight also makes the word mark very clear for an individual to read on a kiosk sign as well as distinctive and familiar. Brewbike also chose to set the word mark in lower case which suggests a casual, conversational tone of voice. I think this works well as it suggests a comfortable intimacy or personal connection the brand shares with their customers; encouraging their target audience to trust that if they order from Brewbike, they are guaranteed friendly service and great products.

The company’s advertisements (physical and digital) also use of typography is also very exciting. Unlike the very controlled, sans-serif typeface used for the wordmark to ensure easy readability and identifiability for the audience; posters and social media promotions for the company use much louder and more expressive fonts to catch the audiences attention.